Category Archives: B&W

Keep clear

Posted on by
Reply

fire exit

Time for another black-and-white photograph. In the dock area in Liverpool, you can find these nice brick warehouses that just ooze the industrial atmosphere that I am fond of. Chipped, bleached paint and rust. Lovely, These two metal doors, the one on the right is apparently a fire exit, make for a nicely balanced image. This photo could have been shot anytime from the 1900s I guess, if it weren’t for the cell phone radiation warning sign on the left door. And the anachronistic McDonalds cup, of course. © 2016 Fred S. Wouters

Work at the Dispensary

Posted on by
1

dispensary_web

A dramatic black-and-white photograph of a rather grim place from the past. Dispensaries (started in the Georgian era) were charitable institutions where the poor could be treated without having to admit them to hospitals. Medical care was ‘dispensed’, so to speak. Another establishment called ‘the dispensary’ operates in Liverpool: a pub. Presumably alcohol is dispensed here purely for medicinal reasons.

There is some construction work going on. In the back you see one of two cathedrals in Liverpool, this one from of the church of England. © 2016 Fred S. Wouters

Concrete and Steel

Posted on by
Reply

construction_web

 

This picture is shot with the legendary Trioplan 50 mm ‘soap bubble bokeh’ lens from Meyer Optik in Görlitz, in the former eastern Germany. Funny feeling to be shooting with a lens from the 1950s. The shot was with wide open aperture (f 2.9) to maximise the bokeh effect. As a consequence, the concrete building block at the front is sharply focussed, the shed is creamily defocussed and the soap bubbles come out in the steel framework of the building. I like the substance (brick) – plan (framework) contrast. © 2016 Fred S. Wouters

Biking into existence

Posted on by
Reply

biking_into_existence_cropped_web

OK, this one is a bit experimental. Evening in Liverpool, without a tripod, I shot a short time series of a biker passing. I knew I wanted to merge the images and suggest movement/time. As there were only four images, the easiest was to (ab)use color channels with the visually pleasing result above.

I like the way the CMYK and RGB colour schemes come through depending on whether the intensity is lower or higher than the background. The colours merge into the black-and-white figure that rides out of the frame. © 2016 Fred S. Wouters

Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue

Posted on by
Reply

colorsingrey_web

Also in Liverpool, I came across this window that had been decorated with colourful thumb/hand prints. The kids had obviously had fun with their colours but the descriptions  were likely added by an adult. In post-processing, I mirrored the writing, changing the perspective from the inside for the kids to the outside for us.

As I liked the dash of colours in the monotonous brick work, I decided to do some selective colouring of the black-and-white image. © 2016 Fred S. Wouters

Swift

Posted on by
Reply

Mauersegler_web

The first photograph of the web site. This was taken from the castle in Erice, a medieval village in Sicily, in early spring this year. The layered rock on which the village is built is visually very pleasing and buildings were erected on precipitous sites as you can see in this example. In the back you can just about make out the skyline and waves of the sea. It took quite a number of photos to capture the one swift where I wanted it to be. Loved the screeching sound of the swifts. And the German word for these animals is quite poetic: Mauersegler, which translates to ‘wall sailer’.

I will post some more photos from this location. Photographs on this site will not be in chronological order. © 2016 Fred S. Wouters